Clematis cuttings

[Neil Bromhall]

Post by Paul Narramore
These are early days and my clematis cuttings may well keel over even as we speak. I was pruning a clematis 'Lady Betty Balfour' (Group 3 type) at the weekend down to about 12" above the ground. It seemed to me to be such a shame to throw the prunings on the compost heap as there were fat leaf buds all the way up the stem so I cut them in to 6" lengths, cutting above and below a leaf axle, and put three in a pot of gritty compost. After three days, they seem to be thriving. No rooting compound was used. I've just been out and retrieved some more prunings and will be able to make three more cuttings. Fingers crossed.

[Neil Bromhall]

I'm having a go at propagating Clematis Montana and Freckles by 1) Simply putting the cuttings in a jar of rain water sitting on my kitchen windowsill

2) Dabbling the cuttings in a hormone powder and putting the cuttings in damp compost in the greenhouse.

I'll let you know how I get on

Date started 20-2-08.

[sue1002]

It will be interesting to hear your results Neil, I hadn't even thought about rooting them in water.

[Neil Bromhall]

I'm pretty sure that Digger wrote that he'd tried just using water with Freckles and it worked. Can you confirm this Digger.

I did it with a passion flower that I was filming for the Private Life of Plants and the stem sent out roots just submerged water.
It's growing happily in the garden now.

[digger]

Hi all, I did use water but only for 24hrs, the method was to put the cutting in water from anywhere between 2 hours and 24 hours, this is the method recommended from a friend in Japan, and they take a much longer cutting some are 10 inches long, we have seen the method where the cutting is a short inter nodal one with just one leaf left on the stem and then the cutting is plunged right up to the leaf into cutting medium. I have been in touch with a chap at the BCS and he recommends that most cuttings need to be taken within 25 millimetres of the node, where rooting activity is more apparent. Some of the evergreen and New Zealand clematis can be rooted in water. The Japanese have a product called HB101 which is added to the water, we cannot get it here commercially but I think it contains rooting hormone so i just use powder. It will be interesting to see if your cutting take Neil. Gentle bottom heat is recommended for most clematis cuttings,but again there is no hard and fast rules because I succeeded layering Cezanne outside in the cool months. That could have just been a fluke, I think I would have to use the method three or four times before we can say it is proven. at the moment I have some cuttings in the propagator from c.ernest markham, just for the pupose of experimenting they are in perlite and rooting powder was used ,I have given them water from above every other day. I think it can also depend on the material used wether it is softwood hardwood etc.. I think it makes a difference for each cultivar. Another thing that was pointed out was that the ideal temperature was 20 degrees celsius for most cuttings from whatever group, and although we want good roots to form, we must not use a container that is too deep because the heat wouldn't be as accurate in a really deep pot in comparison to a seed tray, this sounds obvious but it was something that I had over looked, at the moment I am using very small plastic pots that are the size of "thumb pots" about two inches deep.

[Paul Narramore]

Neil

I have a Clematis montana rubra which I'm encouraging to climb up into the boughs of an old White Willow tree, and if mine is as red as that, I'll be really pleased. My cuttings are now two weeks old and seem to be fine, just standing on a shelf in the porch.

[digger]

What method did you use to root them Paul? was it using bottom heat?

[Paul Narramore]

Digger

I mentioned how I did mine at the top of this page. No rooting powder nor bottom heat. It's really a case of 'suck it and see'. If it works and a large proportion take, then I'll stick with this method as it's easy. So far, so good.

[digger]

It would be interesting to see if the method will work with other cultivars apart from those in the montana species.

[Neil Bromhall]

The clematis buds are still looking alive but in both water and in the compost but still no sign of any roots forming.

[digger]

It can take weeks Neil, you could try for the sake of experimentation ,taking a single cutting out of the water and dip it into rooting powder,and then stick it in compost/perlite with some bottom heat. This will give an extra testing ground. I have been looking at several methods and the one Paul described is commonly used in the UK just by leaving one leaf stalk on and plunging the cutting up to the node, where as I was sent a picture of the Japanese method and they took a cutting at least ten inches long with both leaf stalks left in situ.

[Paul Narramore]

Two friends have recently returned from a holiday in New Zealand and brought us a gift of four packets of seeds. Now as I write this, I have no knowledge of them so are currently reading up about them. These are the seeds we have -

Clematis paniculata, Myosotidium hortensia (Chatham Island Forget me Not Blue), Sophora microphylla (Weeping Kowhai) and Cythea dealbata (Silver Fern).

The Silver Fern is New Zealand's national emblem, the Kowhai is their national flower, and the clematis is a Class 1 variety which is a little bit tender and has perfumed white flowers.

[digger]

Hi Paul if it is the species paniculata it should make a lovely four sepal white flower, and of course being from New Zealand it will be evergreen. I have been told that germinating clematis seed is or can be a very long drawn out affair, I would be really interested to know (if you have time) what the sowing instructions on the packet are, this would be useful info,because I have no idea of the new Zealand clematis requirements. I have some seed of patens and the advice I was given was, put them in a seed tray of gritty compost water them stick a lid on and put them outside out of direct sunlight ,never let them dry out, and be prepared to wait for up to twelve months.

[Paul Narramore]

http://www.mcgregors.co.nz/products/showprod.php?sec=3&cat=NZNA&prod=M4200

This is the seed packet I have. They appear to have six petals and a mere TEN seeds.

[Neil Bromhall]

(Week 4) 14-3-08
Both the potted ones with hormone powder and the ones in rain water are still alive, though I can't see any roots yet.
I think that my Montana cutting were too high on the plant as they are forming flower buds.
Freckles is still looking healthy but this could change.
I'll keep you posted.

[Paul Narramore]

My clematis cuttings aren't doing much, haven't put on much growth but at least are alive. I've now put them outside rather than on the window sill. I found that as they are in gritty compost, this dries out very quickly and it's easy to neglect them. Outside they are close to the water butts and I walk by them each day. I think yesterday's rainfall did them a power of good too.

[digger]

Hi all, I have some more clematis cuttings on the go they are mainly from macropetala group. I have them in 100% perlite in the propagator and i am told that every other day I should water the perlite because this brings oxygen to the business end where the roots will grow (hopefully).

[digger]

i have some measured success to report, i have put some cuttings into different sized pots/containers as a trial, yesterday the cuttings in a 3 inch plastic pot had rooted the ones in a more shallow tray are not yet rooted. This means (I think) that the propagator is a little too warm at it's current setting,for using a shallow tray for the clem cuttings, the rooted cuttings are now in multi purpose compost and into the soil bed with gentle bottom heat

[Paul Narramore]

This is an interesting site Digger.

http://www.plocket.co.uk/index.html

[digger]

Thanks for the link Paul, that's an interesting site,I did a day at Harroget on Friday helping out at the BCS stand.